WTS: Ancient olympics

Discussion in 'For Sale' started by Valentinian, Jul 18, 2016.

  1. Valentinian

    Valentinian Well-Known Member

    Here is an example of the famous wresters/slinger type. It is not from Olympia, but comes about as close to showing games as you can get with an ancient Greek coin.
    The Olympics are coming up in August.
    61106o.jpg 61106r.jpg

    Aspendos, 370-330 BC. Silver stater, 23 mm. wresters/letters F N (backwards) in field, with lettering in exergue. My rendering of the letters is not quite right since they are not really Greek letters, but letters in a local language.
    /slinger, legend ESTFEΔHYL (the city name in that language, Aspendos), triskles in field right. 9.93 grams. SNG von Aulock 4568.
    ex Frank Robinson, 3/1997.
    Leu 72 (5/98) lot 293 is from this die (but an earlier die state) says the legend in exergue names the two wrestlers, the first part meaning "der Standhafte" and the second "der den Griffen des Gegners entschlupft" citing an 1884 article (which might be wrong).
    CNG Triton XIV lot 337 is from the same obverse die, less worn at the time. That one went for $1200 + $180 fees. This reverse is better centered.
    [$169 + $5 shipping in the US]

    For more Greek coins, see
    http://augustusmath.hypermart.net/Greek.html
    which is the Greek page of my web site. It has links to pages on Roman coins, Byzantine coins, etc.
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2016

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